Sleepless
by Sardonicus
Summary: Haunted by his thoughts, fears, and memories as he tries to sleep, Ash seeks out an old friend, who has come to visit him, to help clear his mind. Pokeshipping. Two-shot. Happy Pokeshipping Week! Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**First, happy Pokeshipping Week everyone! I thought I'd publish something I've been sitting on for awhile for the occasion.**

 **It's been a long time since I put anything I've written on here. My life's been busy, but I've written here and there. This one is a two-shot,** **and I'll have the second chapter up by the end of the week.**

 **I hope you enjoy it!**

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Ash lay awake in bed. The room was near pitch dark, the dim red glow of the alarm clock a steadfast guardian against the blackness. The soft cotton sheets tickled his skin. The cold night air needled into his exposed arms. The air conditioner thrummed in the background. He flipped over onto his left side and shut his eyes, but he knew it would help nothing. Thoughts leaped around his head like dancing fairies, each alighting onto his consciousness and making themselves known with brilliant flashes of light and color. Ash could only observe the chaos, and he could not ignore it.

Helpless, he tried to tamp down the fires of his ruminations. With each one put out, a new one arose, taunting him as the flames licked at his mind, singeing his sanity. He turned over once more, onto his back, eyes wide open. The gray, morphing shapes of his thoughts hung over him, contrasted against the seeming endless void above him that was the ceiling. They floated from side to side, diseased feathers of crows that endlessly screeched. The ire of the sound reverberated through the room, unforgiving in its volume.

As the cacophony rose to a head, he sat up and swiveled his body until his legs hung off the edge of the bed. The thoughts slowed for a moment, as if thrown off their rhythm by his sudden change of position. He tried to hold onto that slower pace of thought, to force his mental drumbeat to keep on a slower tempo, but to no avail. He stood up abruptly and the thoughts slowed again. His heart thumped against his throat once, twice, and the thoughts caught up to him once more. He donned the nearest articles of clothing, and began to walk.

The thoughts seemed to follow him, not quite with him, but just behind him. He heard their echoes bouncing off the walls, saw their shadows as they whirled around themselves. But they could not catch him. One reached out to wrap its dark tendrils around him as he approached the stairs, but the jerky, uneven descent shook it loose. He took a hard turn left at the bottom of the stairwell, hoping to lose the thoughts around the corner, but still they followed. Lost hopes, old fears, dreams, and memories all fell into lockstep with him as he trod on through the darkness.

There, at the end of the hall was what he sought. The door to the outside world, the door he knew he must open, the door to which his subconscious mind led him. The thoughts began to dart in front of him, fighting with each other for purchase over his attention. Scraping and clawing at each other, they writhed with desperation. They circled him, surrounded him, yet he walked on toward the door, behind which he knew lay his solace.

Hands reached out toward him, swiping at his mind, grabbing wherever they could. Fingers slid around his insides, penetrating, twisting, wrenching. The sounds grew louder, the grip grew tighter, but there was the door. The thoughts threw themselves toward him, crashing into him, careening off, mangled and broken. But still they came.

The door loomed over him, a monolith. His hand extended toward the knob and the thoughts swatted at him. They knew what was on the other side. Fear pulled his hand back. Long dead dreams screamed. Doubt swirled around him, ever closer.

And he opened the door.

There Misty stood, looking out over the edge of the porch. She turned to face him. And the thoughts froze, and fell, and shattered on the ground. And it was silent.

Her orange hair, shining in the moonlight like a beacon, floated over her shoulders, gliding into place around her delicate neck. A breeze flowed through her hair, rippling like the hem of silken dress. Her ashen complexion cut into the dark of the night. The soft tone of her voice nuzzled against his ear like a contented kitten.

"Oh, hi Ash. What are you doing out here?"

The memory of the whirlwind of thoughts that drove him here stilled his speech. Searching for a truthful explanation, he spoke.

"I-I couldn't sleep. There's so much I want to talk to you about." A faint glow of heat permeated his cheeks as his eyes pulled themselves away from hers.

A small smile drew her lips back. "You want to talk? We've got plenty of time before I get tired. It's still early in Cerulean." Misty sat down on the couch to her right and brushed brown, dead leaves off the seat next to her. The leaves cracked and crinkled as they drifted down and skidded across the wooden planks of the floor. Tentative, nervous, Ash lowered himself down where those leaves once rested.

The couch on the porch of the small town's Pokemon Center cooled his back, heated by his inner turmoil. The crisp air wafted through his nose and lungs. The sharp smell of the fallen leaves tingled against his sinuses. A dim street lamp stood in the distance against the backdrop of the moon-shadowed treeline.

Misty leaned forward, knees supporting her elbows. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

He met her eyes and flashed a smile. "Everything. Everything that's happened since the last time I saw you."

"Well, then we better get started."

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 **Hopefully it wasn't too short. The next chapter is longer, though.**

 **Please, feel free to fav, follow, and review. Praise is great and criticism is welcome and encouraged, so long as it's constructive. If you liked my writing, you can check out my other work on my profile page.**

 **Once again, happy Pokeshipping Week everybody!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone! I just want to thank everyone who reviewed, faved, followed, and read the last chapter. Knowing that someone enjoyed my writing really makes me happy.**

 **So here's chapter two. Enjoy!**

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The thoughts flew from his lips as words, escaping before he could consider them. His mind was draining itself like a water tank with an open valve, his mouth the spout. Some inexorable gravity compelled his mental debris to sink and settle, and each wait their turn. He spun incredible tales of far off regions, of legendary pokemon, and of his own heroics. He related the most mundane of details of his day to day life. He spoke of friends and rivals, of adventures and happenstances he didn't think he remembered. But he held the most important things back.

Misty oohed and aahed, she smiled and she grimaced, and she laughed. A warm tingle permeated his gut and a confidence welled up from within his psyche when he made her laugh. The sound triggered a satisfaction deep within the most basic parts of his mind. He sat for a moment in a reverie of self-satisfaction, broken by Misty's voice.

"Wow, Ash, you've been through so much without me. I feel like I could stay out here all night listening to you."

His heart leaped from his chest into his throat. His pulse pounded against his skin. "I feel that way too." His jaw locked up at the thought of saying anything more.

"It makes me feel like I can share your experiences with you." Her eyes darted down toward her lap. "I hope that doesn't sound stupid."

The midnight air had cooled to a chill that stung his fingers, which he had buried underneath his legs. The moon, blanketing the nearby forest in its pale light, had risen above the roof of the Pokemon Center's porch. A smattering of dead leaves covered the road that streaked across their view. The gentle hum of forest pokemon had settled into the background. But the beauty of Misty's face shone bright enough to wash out all the trivialities behind her, like a sun in a night sky.

"Misty, that doesn't sound stupid at all. I would love to share all of my adventures with you." His tongue froze. His brain shut down. All of his muscles clenched. He felt nothing but his own body tightening like a spring with a massive weight bearing down on it.

Misty smiled. "That's sweet, Ash."

The weight released, and the spring within him flew into the air. Heat spilled out from every pore in his body. Warm blood flooded over his cheeks, and he was thankful for the darkness.

Their eyes locked. The old thoughts rose from the ground. And they began to dance around him. Slowly, they closed in. He focused on Misty's face.

"There's something I want to tell you, Misty. I-I've been waiting a long time to say this." The thoughts bobbed up and down, up and down, up and down. "It's been keeping me awake all night." They cackled at him, an insidious laughter. They thought him a fool.

"Ash, what are you trying to say?" A crinkle formed in her brow. The echo of a smile on her lips reverberated through his heart.

The thoughts began to swirl once more. Around and around, up and down, they rattled, vibrating his mind. "It's been so long since we traveled together, and it's never quite been the same since you left." They yelled and they screamed. They begged him to say anything else. "Misty I've missed you so much." The momentum of his words knocked the thoughts aside. They ricocheted of the walls in their furor. "I'm not sure I can keep going much longer without you there."

The thoughts fell silent and still, waiting as he was for her reply.

Misty stammered, her face going though waves of expression. "Ash, I'm flattered, really, but you can't just put that kind of burden on me like that."

"Sorry, Misty, I didn't mean to -"

Misty stood and loomed over him. "No Ash, you can't just tell me that you're depending on me to give up my life, my family's gym." Her arms flew about in wild gesticulations. "You can't just tell me I'm the reason you're gonna give up on your dreams."

Ash rose to meet Misty's stare. "Geez, I was just trying to open up to you a little."

"Well a little was a little too much." She sighed heavily, letting her arms fall to her sides.

"I'm not saying I'm giving up or anything."

"Well then why did you say almost exactly that?"

"You don't understand, Misty."

"Oh, I think I do."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah, I think I know exactly what this is about."

"Yeah, what?"

"You're in love with me."

A bolt of lightning shot though Ash's body, shutting down every process that occurred within its machinery. The thunderclap sent the thoughts scurrying. All was blank. he felt nothing but being suspended as time flowed around him, washing away the flotsam of his past and his thought. It was a sickening stillness. He stared at Misty. Her expression softened into one of wonder.

"I'm right, aren't I?" Her mouth hung open. His mouth as well. He could say nothing. He swallowed on air.

Misty took a step toward him, closing the gap between them to mere inches. She raised her hand to Ash's cheek. A surge of adrenaline struck him in the chest as her fingers brushed down his skin. She traced her touch to the back of his neck. Goosebumps cascaded their way down his back and arms. Blood rushed to his face. Heat welled up from his core. The smell of flowers wafted up through his nose, his breath shortening, hoping to preserve the memory of it against corruption. They gazed into each other's eyes, until Misty closed hers and pulled his head forward.

The soft, supple flesh of her lips brushed against his like a drifting feather alighting on a fateful patch of ground. Tingling bristled at every surface of his skin. The pull on the back of his neck intensified. Misty laced her lips, caressing, feeling their way though this uncharted territory of pleasure, into his. His heart banged against his throat, begging to leap out of him in rapture.

The miasma that clouded his joints began to subside. Eyelids descended over his vision. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer. Her hands flowed down his neck, leaving a trail of tingling ecstasy, and came to rest on his chest.

The world melted around Ash as their tongues grazed each other. Their souls fused in a brilliant flash of light that radiated throughout his entire body. Excited shouts and giddy laughter expanded within him, inflating his insides, threatening to burst.

And then she pulled away, grins stretching both of their faces.

"It's a lot to ask of me, Ash. But I'll see what I can do. I'd love to join you someday. But I won't promise anything. The one thing I can promise is that you'll always be with me in my heart. And I hope I'll always be in yours. And, Ash." She looked up, the blue of her irises sparkling in the moonlight.

"Yeah?" The sound stumbled out of his mouth, barely making it past his dazed lips.

"I love you too." The words, like an inevitable bullet though silent air, struck him, and his soul lurched forward. He could feel the focus and drive begin to leak from his being, slowly, as he leaned in to kiss her again. And he found he did not care.

As they came together once more, the universe faded away. All that was left was Misty, and the old thoughts, as they began to rise from their graves. She was his world now, just as he had feared.

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 **A bit of a twist on the classic confession fic. I guess Ash can't live with her, can't live without her, know what I mean?**

 **As always, favs, follows, and reviews are greatly appreciated. Praise makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside and criticism helps me get better, so both are welcome!**

 **And once again, Happy Pokeshipping Week!**


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